Burr v. Beckler

Ednah Beckler (defendant) was traveling in Florida when she received a request from her husband, Charles Tobey (defendant). At the time, Tobey and Beckler lived in Chicago. Tobey needed money to pay down an overdrawn account. He intended to borrow the funds from his grandmother’s estate, of which he was the trustee. To do so, he asked Beckler to execute a note promising to repay the borrowed funds, meaning the loan was in Beckler’s name. He also asked her to join him in executing a trust deed on certain Chicago real property, placing the property in trust as security for the loan’s repayment. After Beckler and Tobey divorced, Beckler asked Tobey, as trustee of the creditor estate, to release the trust deed. Instead, he assigned the note and trust deed to Shelton Burr (plaintiff), his business associate. When payments on the note were not made, Burr sued Beckler, Tobey, and William Church (defendant), the trustee of the property, to foreclose on the trust deed. Beckler responded in part that the note was executed in Florida, where she lacked the capacity under the state’s coverture law to execute the note and trust deed. The trial court agreed and dismissed the complaint. Burr appealed. The appellate court reversed, concluding that Illinois law governed the note and trust deed because the concerned real property was located in Illinois. The Illinois Supreme Court granted review.